Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1887-12-07
EDUCATIONAL
o. D. BELDEN, EDITOR.

ss. @. D. BELDEN, EDITOR. y -. -
! District 20. Lyle, has just purchased a
tine Holbrook's 8-inch globe. ssr.%s :
Supt. Belden last week drove through
tn he Roy visiting schools on til. wa
This week he is in Bennington.
The school house in District 81, Nevada,
Peter Unwilling. Clerk has just been
furnished with a set of fine new Andrew 8
desks. n 4 y.-.- -
q Mr.. John 81. Vaughn. of Mitchell Co.,
Iowa, is teaching his third term in Dist.
&. LODI. We are glad to have his aid in
our county. He is an excellent disciplin-
arian and his methods are varied and
thorough.
Miss Emma Eastman is teaching in
District 81, Nevada, and is giving good
satisfaction. She is ambitious to improve
and gives close attention to her school
work. We expect very profitable term
Of; instruction v.
Miss Belle Robinson is teaching the
winter term in District 1O6, Dexter, and
the patrons of the school are much
pleased with her. The pupils are prompt
and obedient and not a single case of
tardiness has yet occurred.
Eye Culture.
In reading, do you find that your pu-
pills: omit or supply small words or sub
stitute others for them?
In nearly all the classes which we hear,
this difficulty appears. 1t comes, first,
from lack of eye culture-the pupil
does not see the word clearly; and, Sec
ond, from mistaken idea which so
many of our teachers have instllled-that
calling words constitutes by far the most
important part of the reading lesson
The thought and its natural expression
have been sadly neglected.
One help to eye culture that may be
used for two minutes daily, even in ad-
vanced classes, is to. require the calling
of the words In a sentence in reverse
order, beginning with the last and per-
mittlng the same pupil to call all the
words in the sentence. This compels
close watching of the words, as the con
reeting words are not suggested by those
6rstspoken. .,..,.e.z..,- 49,.
Again, the sight reading, used BY many
tea&ssrs where cards containing words,
and later those with sentences, are mo-
mentarily held before the eye and quickly
removed. A part of each.reading lesson
should be devoted to word drill for eye
culture.-G. A. Burgess.
f. Educational Humbugs.
There are many of this class. but that
particular one, that requires pupils to
read incorrect sentences for the purpose
of.knowiug that they are wrong, and
finding out the correct forms, IS one of
thesSworst that at present af1lcts our
schools. As we'll might we put all forms
OF oaths in book and REQUIRE children
to repeat them for the purpose of know
ing the sin of swearing, or introduce
young people to all sorts of vice for the
purpose of fortifylng them against the
evil of sin. Thefpractice of evil is wrong,
from whatever view it IS seen. There
can be no apology for it. Some time ago
we heard of a teacher who had several
boards filled with uugrammatical express
sions, gathered from the speech of his
pupils, They were continual object
lessons, fixing, more and more firmly, in
correct habits in the minds of his scholars
AIfew weeks ago we picked up leading
educational paper in which there was a
column of these obnoxious collections of
words. Why did not the editor go out
and gather many more from the lips Of
unfortunate ignorants, who never open
their lips but to murder the English Ian
guage9 If q little is good. more would
be better, and a whole paper full would
be best. What shall be done? Many
thfngs-but here is one way and a good
one. Write the sentence on the board
correctly. Let it be repeated several
times. and then erase the word usually
misused. - = :"~